About the Norah Jones concert... most of what I wanted to say is in the Star Tribune review. I’ll post it here, pretty much for my own benefit!

Review: Tunesmith Norah Jones lively, lovely

Jon Bream-- Star Tribune

September 13, 2004

"Holy hockey arena!" pop-jazz star Norah Jones declared after her first number Saturday night at Xcel Energy Center, a site of the recent World Cup of Hockey.

With that three-word icebreaker, the notoriously shy, infamously understated Jones showed more confidence and character than she had during her entire concert last year at Northrop Auditorium. By show's end, Jones' performance was as thoroughly satisfying as last year's had been deeply disappointing.

It seemed as if Jones, who has sold more albums than any other artist in the past two years, has had a major makeover. The 25-year-old singer-pianist traded her organic hippie look for low-key glamour. Instead of being shy, she was chatty and spontaneously funny. Rather than performing to her bandmates, she played to the audience. Instead of spending the entire show at the piano, she stood for several songs. And she replaced one of her young, inexperienced guitar players with veteran Robbie MacIntosh (formerly of the Pretenders), which added much-needed textures and confidence to her Handsome Band.

Jones, who considers herself a musician, not a star, even figured out how to make her small music work in a big arena. While she seemed lost in 5,000-seat, soldout Northrop last summer, she was effective in the half-full St. Paul hockey arena in front of 8,080 people thanks to expert live big-screen video close-ups. Even though the stage was dimly lit, she seemed bright and bold on the big screens. When she sat at the grand piano, there would be one, two or sometimes three images of her on the screens, with one image often dissolving into another. The artful video work gave the show energy that her mellow, melancholy music didn't have.

Jones, a New Yorker who spent most of her life in Dallas, had dedicated the concert to the Canadians in her crew who an hour earlier had screamed with joy when Team Canada won the World Cup semifinal game in Toronto. "God knows what would have happened if they lost," Jones told the crowd. "There'd be no sound tonight."

As it is, Jones' sound was soft and downbeat, particularly the tunes from her 17-million-selling debut disc "Come Away with Me," which led to eight Grammys for her and her collaborators. The material on her 2004 second effort, the 4-million-selling "Feels Like Home," provided some new textures and a tad more varied tempos. A few choice covers added even more variety to the mix. Her comfortably restrained Handsome Band actually cut loose on the band's "Life Is a Carnival," the only time that Jones musically let her hair down.

She showed her wonderfully nuanced interpretive powers on country-rock icon Gram Parsons' "She," taking it to a crossroads in Texas where country, jazz and soul intersect. It was one of the highlights of her 95-minute performance.

Among the other high points were the dreamy hit "Come Away with Me," the irresistibly sultry "Turn Me On," the two-steppin,' thigh-slappin' "Creepin' In" and "Don't Know Why," her breakthrough piano hit that was recast as an acoustic-guitar number.

She then followed with another revamped version of the tune -- one that was more, uh, playful and pun-filled -- that she had sung on "Sesame Street," as a duet with Elmo, that involved the letter Y. (Get it? The letter Y and "Don't Know WHY.") It was a case of Jones letting her hair down in a nonmusical way.

In any case, Saturday was an evening for Jones, like Team Canada, in which her cup runneth over.

Norah asked the audience if we liked Amos Lee, her opening act. He was so witty and he has a wonderful voice. His best song was “Teddy bear,” inviting the audience to whisper those words as he sang his song. His sound is bluesy, and he has such a wicked sense of humour. I laughed so hard. The Philly-based songwriter joked with the crowd, first saying that his suit cost him $10. He then said he was serious about having us buy his CD. He begged, saying that it was only $5 more than his suit.

His “Teddy bear” song was clever and was a bit of a satire on R&B music. I laughed when he sang, "Peanut butter and jelly all over your belly / Let's get sweaty, sweaty, sweaty." Norah Jones made fun of the sweaty thing by singing it during the early part of her show.

Amos Lee talked about driving from Milwaukee, WI to St. Paul in four hours. He was doing some serious driving there. He hoped that there weren’t any state troopers in the audience.

So, yes, I had a terrific time out last night. It was worth the drive down to the Twin Cities. I miss that place so much. I know Minnesota better than any other state. This weekend reinforced why I enjoyed living there. Folks are nice, they understand hockey, and it’s beautiful.

I woke up at 09:00, eventually checking out of the hotel at 10:30. The front desk woman told me that I had a refund, but could only send me a cheque if the refund was over $20 USD. I told her that she had told me to put down an extra $20 the other day, as I had paid her in cash. She told me that my refund was $53. Send me a cheque? I’m at the desk. I’m there in person. Why waste the stamp and envelope? And why was my refund so large?

It turns out that when the same woman had checked me in as that Angelo character, I also got his rate. When the name problem was solved, I got my room rate, which was $30 cheaper than Angelo’s. She had overcharged me from the start, but failed to let me know until today. My friend became irritated. Oddly, I wasn’t. So she screwed up. She eventually fixed it. I’ll return to charging hotel bills to my credit card next time.

Whenever I’m on vacation, I have some sort of epiphany. This time, it’s Ikea. Winnipeg used to have one years before I had settled there. The closest Ikea was either in Schaumburg, IL, or either Edmonton or Calgary, AB. No more! There’s a new Ikea across from the Mall of America in Minneapolis. My jaw dropped seeing that. It’s about time that a state with a large number of Scandinavians had its own Ikea.

I failed to mention yesterday that I visited an Apple store. I listened to a couple of Guster songs on a blue iPod Mini. I needed that fix. I’d love one of those 23” computer monitors. I wish I were rich.

We drove from Bloomington to Alexandria. We went back to Culver’s for lunch. I swear that I’ve made my friend a butterburger and milkshake addict now.

I filled up the car at the local gas station. I want an Impala car. The fuel tank is huge. I’m sure that if I had filled up in Bloomington, that I would have made it to Winnipeg without stopping at a gas station to full the car up. The tank is that big. I also went into the store and purchased a Powerball lottery ticket. The woman asked for my ID. Apparently, I looked young to her. I yanked out my driver’s licence. She gave me my ticket. I should be flattered, but I’m not. I was flattered yesterday when I wasn’t carded at the bar in St. Paul.

I didn’t have a single complaint about drivers this weekend till I was in Fergus Falls, MN. There was this one woman driving a pickup truck. She’d pass me, pull in front of me, and slow down. Weird. So, I passed her a couple of times. That slightly annoyed me. What was annoying occurred when she was passing a trailer on her right and was too afraid of doing it. She slammed on the brakes. I was not impressed with that. I was behind her and I had left lots of space between her car and mine, thank goodness. She immediately pulled into the right lane. I whizzed by her. She then followed and managed to pass the trailer. Strange.

A couple of hours later, we ended up in Grand Forks, ND. Cutting through Fargo, we picked up CJOB and heard the Bombers-Roughriders game (a.k.a. the Banjo bowl). I was surprised that the signal was that strong. It was nice. The Bombers won by three points.

I associate Minnesota and North Dakota with Mello Yello. It’s kind of like Sprite, but better. It’s one of the first soda drinks I had when I first visited both states. My friend is also addicted to that drink. I had a Dr Pepper at Columbia Mall in Grand Forks, so I didn’t fall into that trap. Lots of construction is taking place around the mall. There’s even more construction going north on I-29. I must hand it to the semi in front of me with Oregon plates. He lead us through all the detours nicely.

Canadian customs was busy. I think I was there waiting for twenty minutes. I had a nice young woman at the customs booth. (Sidenote to Weathergeek... not sure if she was the hot one you had referred to... she had blondish hair, I think. I didn’t pay much attention to her. I probably would have if I were interested in gals. I only remember her wishing me a good evening. My friend thought she was cute, though.)

We drove into Winnipeg roughly an hour later. We stopped at the Cork ‘n’ Dock restaurant. It was fairly busy for a Sunday evening. I had chicken penne carbonara. I feel big and bloated this evening.

Anyway, I’m sad about departing Winnipeg tomorrow. I’ve had a great vacation, but it was too short. I hope that I get to the airport early tomorrow. I’d like to hit the arcade and play my favourite game there. I’m pretty much packed.

I called my parents this evening. They seemed happy to chat with me. That’s a good sign. All is well back in Toronto.

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Song that's stuck in my head: John Mayer's "Bigger than my body"
Yummy food eaten today: Strawberry milkshake
What I crave: Being away on vacation for a longer period

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